Sustainable wildlife management should, amongst others, safeguard human health. This study concerns rural residents' perceived quality of life and the potential effect of large carnivores (LCs) on psychological health outcomes (life satisfaction, anxiety symptoms, and exhaustion). One group of rural residents that appears to be especially vulnerable when the number and range of LCs increase is sheep owners. 279 participants (rural residents without livestock n =114, livestock owners without sheep n = 103, and sheep owners n = 62) completed a survey on rural living also including established instruments to assess psychological health outcomes. Rural residents without livestock were mainly positive while sheep owners were mainly negative towards presence of LCs. Sheep owners reported lower life satisfaction, more anxiety symptoms, and more exhaustion symptoms as compared to other livestock owners and rural residents as a group. However elevated stress and anxiety symptoms among sheep owners seem to be an outcome of accumulated stress due not only to the presence of LCs, but also due to problems to reach the break even point economically. The results are discussed in terms of the overall situation for livestock owner.

Abstract Wildlife might be important to psychologically restorative values and disvalues of nature, as interactions with wildlife could trigger both positive and negative feelings. Research on positive experiences of human–wildlife interactions has largely involved participants who voluntarily sought out wildlife experiences or it has addressed encounters with non‐threatening animals in urban green spaces. Less is known about the opportunities for psychological restoration in landscapes shared with mammals that are perceived to pose a threat to human activities and health. This study provides a nuanced understanding of the role of wildlife in public perceptions of the restorative potential and experience of psychological restoration in local natural settings. Twenty‐eight participants (15 women, 13 men, 18–75 years) took part in focus group interviews subject to a reflexive thematic analysis. As an analytical framework, we used a theoretical model for how people appraise the relevance, implications, coping potential and norm congruence of human–wildlife interactions and how such appraisals may support or hinder the restoration experienced in local natural settings. Relevance appraisals revealed shifts in consideration of the presence of wildlife from an integrated part of the natural scenery (background) to a distinct figure (foreground). Implication appraisals revealed that wildlife encounters would hinder the experienced psychological restoration if the animal was appraised as dangerous, disgusting, causing a nuisance or destructive. Wildlife encounters would promote restoration if the animal displayed attractive traits, features or fascinating behaviour or movements, and if it opened engaging interaction situations. Coping strategies perceived as feasible to deal with negative implications of wildlife involved avoidance of the local natural setting, preparatory behaviour displayed before a visit and precautionary behaviour displayed during the visit. Important public health effects might be gained if wildlife policy and management explicitly consider what animals mean to the perceived restorative potential of local natural settings. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

People often visit natural settings for recreation and psychological restoration. This study aims to improve understanding of how exposure to and experiences of mammalian wildlife in local natural settings can permit and promote recreation and restoration. Randomly sampled residents in three regions of Sweden (N = 303) with varying presence of fear-relevant species (wolf, wild boar) and fear-irrelevant species (roe deer, squirrel) completed a questionnaire. Squirrel and roe deer were rated significantly higher than wolf and wild boar for anticipated positive feelings and restoration outcomes, and significantly lower for negative feelings and avoidance of natural settings. The possibility of exposure explained little of the variation in the restoration variables, whereas the experiences anticipated with an animal encounter contributed substantially to explanation. Vulnerability seems to counteract the restorative benefit of fascination. Wildlife conservation efforts and public health initiatives may find practical utility in distinguishing between potential exposure and anticipated experience when designing interventions.

How does the likelihood of encountering wildlife affect residents’ expectations about psychological restoration when visiting a local natural setting, and their choices among settings for future recreation? Do urban and rural residents differ in such expectations and choices? We addressed these questions in a web-based experiment with 223 adult residents randomly sampled from urban and rural areas in each of three regions in Sweden. Residents in all six areas can encounter fear-irrelevant wildlife (roe deer, squirrel) near the home, but the presence of fear-relevant wildlife (wolf, wild boar) differs across the areas. The respondents read scenarios concerning encounters with each of these four animals during recreational visits to a nearby natural setting. The scenarios varied in how frequently the person could expect to encounter each animal across visits (never, sometimes, often). For all 12 scenarios, respondents answered questions about anticipated experiences and restoration outcomes, and the effect of encounter likelihood on future recreational setting choices. Across all areas, with all outcomes, increased likelihood of encounters with the wolves and wild boar detracted from anticipated restorative potential, whereas increased likelihood of encounters with roe deer and squirrel enhanced anticipated restorative potential. A similar pattern showed in recreational setting choices. A domination wildlife value orientation moderated the effects of encounter likelihood for wolf and wild boar, whereas a mutualistic orientation moderated the effects of encounter likelihood for squirrel and roe deer. Our results suggest that wildlife management and public health practice could work together not only to address the fears of residents, but also to enhance the restorative quality of local natural settings by protecting wildlife.

The relationship between decoding ability (Emotion recognition accuracy, ERA) for negative and positive emotion expressions from only video, only audio and audio-video stimuli and the skill to understand peoples' unspoken thoughts and feelings (Empathic accuracy, EA) was tested. Participants (N = 101) from three groups (helping professionals with and without therapy training as well as non-helping professionals) saw or heard recordings of narrations of a negative event by four different persons. Based on either audio-video or audio-only recordings, the participants indicated for given time points what they thought the narrator was feeling and thinking while speaking about the event. A Bayesian regression model regressing group and ERA scores on EA scores was showing weak support only for the EA scores for ratings of unspoken feelings from audio only recordings. In a subsample, the quality of self-experienced social interactions in everyday life was assessed with a diary. The analysis of ERA and EA scores in relation to diary scores did not indicate much correspondence. The results are discussed in terms of relations between skills in decoding emotions using different test paradigms and contextual factors.

Farmers who keep livestock in large carnivore areas are exposed to threat of predation directly impacting on finances and workload as well as the associated psychological stress indirectly impacting on farmers well-being. So far, little is known about such stress responses. The concept of “stress” or “stress reaction” is often used as an undifferentiated umbrella concept for the experience of negative emotional episodes. However, the stress reactions could be divided into cognitive, physiological, and behavioural aspects. This study aimed to develop and apply a theory-based approach to identify stress responses among sheep farmers in the Swedish “wolf-region.” A thematic analysis of interviews conducted with sheep farmers showed ample support for stress responses among the informants in relation to large carnivores and their management, although the interviews were conducted with a different focal topic. The findings support the idea that stress responses could be categorised into cognitive, physiological, and behavioural aspects. This distinction would help to identify and fully understand the cumulative impact of stress from the presence of large carnivores on farmers’ well-being.

Many call for a broad approach to valuation of nature’s contribution to people, one that provides a contextualized understanding of what may be experienced as a value in different cultures, groups and settings. In the present paper we address contributions of nature to psychological well-being as realized through restorative processes during encounters with wildlife. Although restorative benefits of nature experience have received much consideration, sparse attention has been given to the role of the presence or absence of different animals in the settings investigated. The presence of a liked species may increase appreciation for and engagement with a natural setting, but fear of encountering some species may counter the desire to visit a setting with otherwise high restorative quality. This paper proposes a psychological framework for understanding how wildlife may contribute to or hinder people’s opportunities to restore in local natural settings. The framework addresses the transaction between the individual and their surroundings, making use of an appraisal theory of emotion and theories about the restorative benefits of nature experience. We focus upon encounters in landscapes shared by humans and wildlife, and we elaborate on our reasoning with scenarios from Sweden involving local people’s appraisal of wolves and roe deer. An integrated understanding of the psychological processes at work would facilitate communication and decision-making about the contribution of wildlife in nature conservation and management.

Emotion decoding competence can be addressed in different ways. In this study, clinical psychology, nursing, or social work students narrated a 2.5–3 min story about a self-experienced emotional event and also listened to another student’s story. Participants were video recorded during the session. Participants then annotated their own recordings regarding their own thoughts and feelings, and they rated recordings by other participants regarding their thoughts and feelings [empathic accuracy, EA, task]. Participants further completed two emotion recognition accuracy (ERA) tests that differed in complexity. The results showed that even though significant correlations were found between the emotion recognition tests, the tests did not positively predict empathic accuracy scores. These results raise questions regarding the extent to which ERA tests tap the competencies that underlie EA. Different possibilities to investigate the consequences of method choices are discussed.

Background: Recent global changes have led to an increase in distribution of ticks towards higher elevation and latitude in Europe and livestock are at increasing risk of contracting tick-borne diseases, but psychological aspects of how this affects human well-being are rarely assessed. Departing from the theory on emotional appraisal coming from psychology, this study investigates which factors that modulate worry and fear associated with the presence of ticks among livestock owners of sheep and/or cattle. Methods: Survey data from 775 livestock owners in Norway were analysed by hierarchical multiple regression analysis with an index of fear of tick-borne diseases among livestock as the outcome variable. Results: Twenty-nine per cent of the livestock owners reported worry and fear of tick-borne diseases among their livestock. The model explained 35% of the variance in worry and fear. There was a weak association between esti-mated incidences of tick-borne diseases in livestock and livestock owners'worry and fear. Whereas previous personal experience of ticks and tick-borne diseases in livestock, and the livestock owners' appraisals of the situation were more strongly associated with relatively stronger feelings of worry and fear. Conclusions: Livestock owners'worry and fear of tick-borne diseases in livestock can partly be understood as their appraisals of perceived personal relevance of the presence of ticks, its potential negative implications for their daily life at large, and what potential they have to cope by different strategies to adapt or adjust to the situation.

Large carnivores elicit strong emotional reactions, which could influence consensus or social conflicts between persons promoting wildlife conservation and people who suffer from its negative consequences. Interventions to prevent carnivore attacks on domestic animals are intended to promote coexistence between people and carnivores, but could fail to mitigate fear and social conflicts if emotions and perspectives of intervention end users are not given careful consideration. We conducted focus group interviews with animal owners in Sweden and applied a framework of the appraisal theory of emotion to gain a nuanced understanding of their appraisal of intervention use. The analysis identified that appraisals occur at two different levels. The first process related to appraisals of carnivore presence and the second process related to appraisals of intervention use. The interventions can provide an opportunity to facilitate the animal owners’ coping with carnivore presence and thereby reduce their experienced anxiety of carnivore attacks. However, if animal owners are presented with interventions which they consider irrelevant, that have implications with which they cannot cope, or that are incongruent with the animal owners’ norms, then the promotion of interventions can also generate frustration and negative emotions. As such, interventions have the potential to either mitigate or undermine wildlife-related conflicts. In the wider context, taking the perspective of the individual becomes essential, and animal owners’ experiences and appraisals of intervention use must be acknowledged to allow development of social trust and empathetic dialog between stakeholders in the future.

Large carnivores are prioritized in conservation, but their co-occurrence with humans and domestic animals can generate conflict. Interventions preventing carnivore attacks are central to carnivore conservation, but are only effective if implemented. This study investigates drivers of the intention to use interventions among animal owners in Sweden based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, extended with the emotion construct Worry. Additionally, the study includes an explorative analysis investigating the processes behind this worry based on the Appraisal Theory of Emotion. In a survey comprising 1,163 animal owners, the subjective norm is identified as an important driver in the regression model of intended intervention use. Adding Worry to the model increased the amount of explained variance. Worry, in turn was mainly explained by experienced vulnerability among animal owners. This study illustrates how emotion theory can extend TPB to enhance understanding of human behavior, important for future coexistence between humans and wildlife.

Conflicts over wildlife and their potential impacts on human practices and livelihoods are widespread. Large carnivore predation on livestock often becomes a contested topic which has led to global declines in carnivore numbers over centuries. To minimise impacts of carnivores on human livelihoods and allow conservation, various interventions are used to prevent attacks. However, these interventions can only be effective if they are used and implemented. According to the Technology Acceptance Model, end user acceptance depends on perceived usefulness and ease of use. This study investigates the former as believed effect through a modified version of the Potential for Conflict Index. Using a web-based questionnaire we assess acceptance levels and believed effect of interventions intended to prevent carnivore predation on livestock, dogs, and reindeer among animal owners/keepers and members of the public in Sweden. The analysis shows that believed effect is a prerequisite for acceptance of an intervention, but not a guarantee. Interventions promoted by authorities are in some cases highly acceptable to users and the public, but in other cases believed contra-productive and are opposed by the end users. Active promotion of the latter may undermine mitigation efforts. Carnivore removal is generally more acceptable to animal owners than to members of the public. The results are useful to minimise conflicts within carnivore management and increase transparency and success of conservation. The results are discussed in relation to how similar questions may be approached in other systems using combined measures of believed effect, accept-intention, and the Potential for Conflict Index.

Fear of large carnivores such as brown bears may restrict people’s outdoor activities regardless of experts’ estimated risk of attack. This research study empirically examined three exposure interventions in the form of guided walks intended to give people living in brown bear areas tools for coping with their fear. All interventions significantly reduced fear, decreased people’s perceived vulnerability, and increased their social trust in wildlife management authorities. The walk including an encounter with a radio-collared bear in a wild bear habitat resulted in the largest reduction in fear, followed by the walk in the wild bear habitat only and then the walk in a park with captive bears. The wild bear habitat walk was the intervention best suited for further development as it may be used in any area where bears occur and without affecting animal welfare.

Communication interventions are commonly proposed as a way to address people's fear and negative attitudes to build tolerance in shared landscapes between humans and large carnivores. Therefore, managing authorities sometimes respond to people's fear of brown bears (Ursus arctos) by organizing an information meeting. This study increases the understanding of the information meeting to address fear of encountering brown bears. Using a mixed-method approach the study analyzes the explicit meta-communication, i.e., verbal interactions to coordinate communication between presenter and participants, the effects of the meeting on fear and fear-related variables over time, and how these effects compare with the effects of a visit to a permanent brown bear exhibition, and the effects of a guided walk with exposure to brown bears and their habitat as two alternative communication interventions. Participation in information meetings contributed to reduce self-reported fear and the effect lasted over at least 6 months. The information meetings were, as assessed immediately after participation, less efficient than participation in a guided walk, but more efficient than a visit to a permanent brown bear exhibition in reducing fear. The content and format of the meeting was in line with the expectations of an information meeting, e.g., the presenter dominated the initiative in the explicit meta-communication, but still allowing for misconceptions and misunderstandings to be addressed and solved. In the development of communication strategies to address fear of large carnivores, managing authorities should pay attention to details in information content and format as well as to trade-offs between the number of people reached by the intervention and the strength of the effects on fear and fear-related variables among participants. (Less)

I senere tid har sporsmalet om ulvens oppforsel overfor mennesker og naer bebyggelse vaert sentralt i diskusjonen om norsk ulveforvaltning. Det har blitt framholdt at en del ulver er naergaende, pa den maten at de synes a oppsoke bebodde omrader, og ikke viker unna i mote med mennesker. Det sies at naergaende ulver er skremmende, og bidrar til redusert livskvalitet. Denne studiens formal har vaert a kartlegge menneskers opplevelse av a ha ulv i naerheten, samt a undersoke erfaringer med ulv og emosjonelle reaksjoner pa ulv i befolkningen. Dette har vi gjort ved a gjennomfore en sporreskjemaundersokelse i et representativt befolkningsutvalg fra hele landet og et spesialutvalg som dekker deler av ulvesonen, samt en intervjuundersokelse i omradene rundt Osensjoen i Hedmark og Ostmarka ved Oslo. Sporreskjemadata viser at det er et skille mellom kognitive forestillinger om ulven som et farlig dyr, og den personlig opplevde frykten for a mote ulv. Forestillingen om at ulven er farlig, ma i storre grad forstas som knyttet til en sosial diskurs om ulv. Denne forestillingen bidrar til opplevelse av frykt, men er ikke i seg selv uttrykk for en slik emosjon. Samtidig er det slik at en betydelig gruppe kjenner frykt for a mote ulv i naturen, men har likevel en positiv holdning til at det finnes ulv i Norge. Dette tyder pa at noen mennesker som er redde for ulv har behov for tilgang til mestringsstrategier i sin hverdag. Det er forskjeller mellom hvilke faktorer som har betydning for menneskers frykt for ulv i urbane og rurale omrader. Vi ser at betydningen av tillit til miljoinstitusjoner har storre betydning for opplevelse av frykt i rurale enn i urbane strok. Det betyr at tiltak som er innrettet pa a gjore noe med folks forhold til dyret ulv har mindre sjanse til a lykkes der fryktproblematikken i stor grad er et sporsmal om tillit. Ogsa vare kvalitative data viser at tillit til sentrale aktorer er et kjernepunkt, ikke bare nar det gjelder generelle holdninger til ulv og ulveforvaltning, men ogsa nar det gjelder tolkning og diskursiv innpakning av konkrete hendelser, oppfatning av ulven som farlig, og opplevelse av egen frykt. Dette er et hovedfunn, som styrkes av den metodiske trianguleringen. De fleste mulige varianter av fortolkning av erfaringer med ulv forekommer i begge studieomrader, bade positive og negative. Hovedbildet er at hendelser med ulv tolkes inn i et bilde av ulv og ulveforvaltning som finnes fra for. Slike etablerte tolkningsrammer er tilgjengelige fordi de er tett knyttet til storre diskurser om dagens samfunn, ikke minst om maktforhold mellom by og bygd, og tillit eller mangel pa tillit til myndigheter og forskning. Fortellingene om ulven som en potensiell trussel mot liv og helse lenkes opp mot en framstilling av en urimelig maktskjevhet mellom «storsamfunnet» og sma bygdesamfunn. Det har ikke vaert mulig for oss a identifisere trekk ved hendelser med ulv som i seg selv leder til bestemte reaksjoner. Vi finner likevel at en betydelig del av frykt for ulv har sin opprinnelse i opplevd sarbarhet, dog ikke primaert pa grunn av tidligere erfaringer med ulv. Et hovedtema i vare intervjuer har vaert at visse ulver er mindre sky enn andre. Blant informantene er det stor tilslutning til en slik forstaelse uansett oppfatning om ulv for ovrig. Informanter som bor naer lite sky ulv gir uttrykk for at de ville ha langt mindre problemer med a godta ulver som oppforer seg slik de mener andre flokker i omradet har gjort: De holdt seg unna hus og folk. Imidlertid ble nettopp disse ulvene skutt i 2018. Det er et gjennomgaende budskap at jakt burde ta utgangspunkt i behovet for a gjore noe med lite sky ulv, og at ulv som holder seg for seg selv kan fa vaere i fred. A ta ut flokker som ikke plager noen ble mott med kritikk pa bred front. A endre retningslinjene for uttak ville signalisere at man tar lokale erfaringer alvorlig. Den store enigheten om prioritering av uttak kan ogsa vaere utgangspunkt for bedre dialog mellom interessegrupper. (Less)

The brown bear population in Scandinavia has substantially increased the last 30 years, in-creasing the probability of interactions between humans and bears. This environmental change is evident to many who live in brown bear areas and to them it is important to feel safe when engaged in nature based activities. This research project aimed to, further develop and evaluate two specific interventions with regard to their effect on fear of encountering brown bears in nature, departing from psychological theory on human-environment interaction and emotional appraisal. The two interventions were guided brown bear walks and information meetings, both directed to people who live within brown bear areas and express fear of encountering bears.The empirical work was divided into three studies: In Study I the effect of three types of guided brown bear walks was evaluated in a between-group design: Within brown bear habitat approaching a radio collared bear (N = 24), within brown bear habitat close visiting the location for a previous bear approach (N = 27), and within a large carnivore park with fenced brown bears (N = 24). The three types of walks all contributed to significantly reduce the participants’ feelings of fear, perceived vulnerability, and to an increase in social trust. The effect lasted over at least three months. The strongest effects were seen in self-reports and experimental measures among participants who walked in brown bear habitat. The participants reported that the experience of the terrain, being close to a bear under controlled conditions as well as the experienced guide and the group were important aspects that helped reduce feelings of fear. Study II focused upon the effects of information meetings on humans and bears. This study was carried out in parallel with a similar study in Sweden. The verbal information presented was the same as the information given by the guides in Study I, but the participants received the information through an oral presentation. An extensive work was made to recruit participants, yet only six persons attended the information meeting, compared to 97 participants in the Swedish study. One plausible explanation is that the Norweigan meeting was arranged in collaboration with Rovdyrsenteret in Fla that is located in an area without presence of brown bears. The six participants in the meeting reported reduced feelings of fear of encountering brown bears. Study III complemented Study II and aimed at understanding how verbal information about brown bears is received by students who in their future work may meet persons who fear bears. Moreover, in a between-group design the effect was compared between the information on humans and bears interactions (N = 28) given in Study II and information on brown bear ecology (N = 35). The results show that students who listened to the information on humans and bear interactions afterwards provided more elaborated examples on how they themselves would take care of a person who expressed feelings of fears than did those who had listened to information on brown bear ecology.The results show that guided walks in brown bear habitats and information about bears designed according to psychological principles and led by experienced guides may reduce people’s fear of encountering brown bears in nature. Principles for how these interventions could and should be used in practice needs to be developed together with large carnivore information centers and managing authorities. The interventions should also be further developed to be spread to different groups in society. (Less)

Information and education are frequently proposed as interventions to reduce the public’s fear of large carnivores. There are however few comprehensive evaluations of informational approaches, and existing evaluations rarely capture effects on human dimension factors such as people’s feelings of fear. In a recent study of public information meetings designed according to psychological principles it was found that these meetings, if the information was considered credible, could increase the participants’ social trust, and decrease vulnerability and feelings of fear. The analyses also revealed the importance of meta-communication, e.g. non-verbal cues in the interaction between presenter and audience. With the aim to further corroborate the impact of such meetings on people’s feelings of fear, approx 100 persons fearful of brown bears were during the spring 2017 invited to similar information meetings about brown bears. The participants’ self-reported fear, vulnerability and social trust were assessed before and after the meetings. The evaluation was further developed by varying the presenter of the information, adding experimental measures of fear and systematically studying the meta-communication during these meetings. Further results from ongoing analysis will be reported and discussed in relation to the evaluation of human dimensions factors in wildlife management. (Less)

Okande rovdjurspopulationer innebar att fler manniskor kommer att beroras av de stora rovdjurens narvaro. Detta skapar hos en del manniskor oro och radsla. Rovdjursforvaltningen behover hitta olika vagar for att svara pa allmanhetens oro. Syftet med foreliggande projekt var att utvardera hur informationsmoten utformade enligt psykologiska principer inverkar pa allmanhetens radsla for att mota bjorn i naturen. Nittiosju personer (18-81 ar, medelalder 54 ar, 75% kvinnor, 25% man) boende i omraden med bjorn deltog i studien, varav 69 personer ocksa deltog i en uppfoljning. Fyra informationsmotena genomfordes i samarbete med Rovdjurscentret De5Stora i Jarvso. Deltagarna besvarade frageformular vid ankomsten till informationsmotet, direkt efter motet samt sex manader senare. En mindre grupp deltagare genomforde experimentella uppgifter fore och efter motet. En utomstaende observator studerade foredragshallarnas meta-kommunikation under informationsmotena. Studien visar att det ar relevant att bjuda in till informationsmoten nar allmanheten uttrycker oro for att mota bjorn i skogen. Ett mote kan bidra till minskad sjalvrapporterad radsla bland manniskor som ar motiverade att delta. Effekter kunde pavisas for moten med samma innehall och upplagg, men med tva olika erfarna foredragshallare med personlig erfarenhet av bjornmoten. Effekten bestod for de flesta deltagarna over tid. Om information ska kunna minska radslan ar det centralt att informationens innehall och interaktionen mellan foredragshallare och deltagare kan forandra tolkningen av vad ett eventuellt mote med bjorn innebar. Ett ensidigt fokus pa att ge okad faktakunskap ar inadekvat. Valet av information bor utga fran en forstaelse av psykologiska faktorer som ar centrala for oro och radsla sasom upplevd sarbarhet och social tillit samt lyhordhet for deltagarnas behov. Den sociala situationen under motet bor karaktariseras av en interaktion mellan foredragshallare och deltagare som skapar en tillitsfull och trygg stamning. (Less)

Managing authorities in Scandinavia arrange public information meetings when members of the public express fear because wolves or brown bears approach human settlements. This study aimed to increase the understanding of the potential effect of information meetings on self-reported fear of wolves and brown bears. In total, 198 participants completed questionnaires before and after the information meetings. Nine follow-up interviews were held 1 year later. The quantitative analyses revealed that participants who found the information credible reported a significant increase in social trust and a decrease in vulnerability and fear. The qualitative analyses pointed to the importance of information content and meta-communication, for example, nonverbal cues. It is proposed that, among participants who find the information credible, information meetings may change the appraisal of wolves and brown bears, and therefore they might prove useful as an intervention to address fear of these animals.